


The Meaning of Boxing Day

by theimportanceofbeingvictoria



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Boxing Day, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Party, Christmas traditions, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Established Relationship, Holiday Traditions, Jewish Castiel, M/M, SPN Holiday Mixtape 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 05:16:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17176607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theimportanceofbeingvictoria/pseuds/theimportanceofbeingvictoria
Summary: Dean and Cas make their own holiday tradition.





	The Meaning of Boxing Day

Christmas was a jolly festive affair. It always was in the Winchester-Singer family. Christmas Eve celebrated at the Roadhouse. Big fat cheeseburgers dripping with barbeque sauce. Sides of fries, mac and cheese and brussels sprouts with balsamic. Sure it was down-home cooking, but elevated with a new-age flair after Dean returned home from culinary school and “brought the menu into the modern age” as Ellen put it. Most people would have thought Ellen would kill you before letting any changes be made to this business that was her pride and joy. But it was Ellen herself that had asked Dean to add his skillset to her rough and tumble menu. While the heart and soul of the Roadhouse would remain the same, Ellen was proud of Dean and his accomplishments and wanted to have him make his mark on the joint. After all, she fully believed her husband’s most beloved phrase: “Family don’t end with blood.”

So Christmas Eve was a night filled with chosen family. An all-night party at the Roadhouse including any regulars with no place to go and any random straggler happening on by. Sam played DJ in a Santa suit and Jo bartended in an elf costume. It was a boisterous affair that everyone adored.

Christmas Day was a bit more subdued in terms of the guest list (no random barflies allowed), but no less jolly. The day began at Ellen and Bobby’s house promptly at 10am where the day would begin with homemade cinnamon rolls, once again compliments of Dean, and a raucous morning of unwrapping presents by the tree. The afternoon was spent behind the house at Singer Salvage for the annual semi-dangerous Christmas scavenger hunt. After the hunt, the family settled in for a few Christmas movies that generally devolved into one giant nap pile while Bobby (now with the help of Dean) made Christmas dinner: a Swedish feast of Christmas ham, lutfisk, sausage and potatoes all made from recipes that had been in Bobby’s family since before he was born. And the evening finished off with board games until one by one they drifted off to bed.

The first Christmas Dean had invited Cas to the festivities he had been overwhelmed to say the least. Growing up Jewish, the closest Cas got to a Christmas tradition was eating Chinese food and going to the movies. Growing up it had been with his parents and twin brother Jimmy. After his parents had died he and Jimmy had continued the tradition for a while. But when Jimmy moved to D.C. to work on Capitol Hill, he and Cas both decided it just wasn’t worth the expensive plane ticket to eat Chinese food together in lieu of a holiday they didn’t celebrate.

It was two years later that he met Dean. That first year, at night after the family had all gone to bed at Bobby and Ellen’s, Dean and Cas gathered all of their presents and food and got ready to drive home. It may have felt all kinds of right to invite Cas to do Christmas with him. But it still felt a bit too soon to share a bed with him at Bobby’s, and Dean would not banish Cas to the couch. So they had decided ahead of time to make the drive back to Dean’s instead.

The next morning Castiel had surprised Dean with an omelet and a beautifully wrapped red box in bed.

“Happy Boxing Day Dean!”

“Oh! Yeah! Happy Boxing Day Cas! To be honest, I’ve heard of Boxing Day. But I never really knew what it was about.”

“Well there are a lot of different historical reasons for the holiday. Some say it’s because it’s the day that the servants got to have off after working for the rich on Christmas day and it would often begin with their employers giving them a box of food and presents for their day off. Some say it’s a day of giving to the less fortunate with boxes of food and necessary items. Either way, it’s always the day after Christmas. And many people now use it as a holiday to spend with friends after spending actual Christmas with their families.”

“Huh. Thanks for the history lesson Cas” Dean smiled. He loved that Cas was a wealth of knowledge. “Is the box a prop or…”

“No. It is not a prop. It is a gift. For you. I know we already did gifts yesterday. But I wanted to give you one more thing. Privately. And… well… Boxing Day was just a convenient excuse. Don’t consider it a Christmas gift. You know my people skills are a bit rusty… and Christmas isn’t really even my holiday. So I didn’t think this should be for that… But I wanted to give this to you…. And —”

Dean cut Cas off. “Cas. Don’t worry about it. I hope… I hope inviting you to Christmas wasn’t too much for you. I hope you didn’t think I was trying to force you to participate. It’s just… we’ve been dating and I wanted to include you because I love you.”

Castiel gasped. He’d been wondering if it was too soon to share his own feelings with Dean. And to hear them first… well Cas didn’t really celebrate Christmas. But it felt like a Christmas miracle. Or a Boxing Day miracle.

Cas realized by Dean’s timid face that he’d taken too long to respond.

“I love you too Dean. I really do. And thank you for including me in your family’s celebration. It felt wonderful to be included. Maybe next year we can even do Chanukah together.”

Dean smiled and went in for a kiss. Which devolved into a quick make out session. When they finally pulled up for air, Dean finally remembered his present.

“So can I open this now?”

“Yes. I must admit I had been a bit nervous to give you this.”

“I could tell by your rambling” Dean said as he pulled the paper off the small box. “And now?”

“And now I think you should just open the box” said Cas, as he smiled at Dean.

When Dean finally opened the box, all that lay inside was a single gold key.

“Key to your heart babe?” Dean asked.

“If you’d like to see it that way” stated Cas. “It’s also the key to my apartment. No more knocking or asking to be buzzed up. I want you to be able to come over whenever. I want you to feel… welcome there at any time. I—”

Dean once again cut him off with a kiss.

“Jesus. How are you so perfect? I love it Cas. I love you. And I want the same for you. I’ll run out later and get a key made for you today.”

“I love you too Dean. You’re one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Thank you for yesterday and the day before. It was incredible. But what if we just stay in today? Just the two of us? We can get the new key tomorrow.”

“That sounds perfect Cas.”

And thus a new tradition was born. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were the same old raucous affairs as they were before (with the addition of delivery Chinese food for Christmas day lunch in honor of Cas’ family). But on Christmas Day after everyone else had gone to bed, Dean and Cas drove him. One year they drove to Dean’s. The next to Cas’. And in the years following, they went to Cas’ apartment which then became their apartment. And on December 26th they would have their own special tradition of Boxing Day. They would always save their “big” gift to each other for that morning and spend the day together. Cooking, reading cuddled by the fire, watching movies, planning trips, playing games. But whatever they did, they did it together. Yes they did Christmas. And after that first year, they also did Chanukah. But Boxing Day was a holiday all their own. A holiday of love and them. No religion. No family history. No social obligations.

Five years after their first Boxing Day, Dean was sweating. He was ready to surprise Cas with a tiny red wrapped box of his own, filled with a single gold ring. He’d picked it out with Sam months ago. He knew what he was going to say. He’s been practicing it for a year. And yet he was nervous.

When Cas opened up his present, Dean hurriedly asked him the question he had been building up to: “Will you marry me?” And all Cas could do was smile, toss his own box over to Dean where a nearly matching single gold ring sat for Dean, and say with a smile “Only if you’ll marry me.”


End file.
